Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.The international professional organization for writers and illustrators of children’s literature

Registration and lunch for the 2017 JambaLAya Kidlit Conference and a travel stipend (to be determined by distance traveled). The winner will also be introduced at the Conference.

Eligibility:

Any writer from a diverse background as defined in the Diversity Statement below.

The writer must be a current resident of Louisiana or Mississippi. This includes any student enrolled at a Louisiana or Mississippi college or university.

The submission must be from an original work written in English for young readers and may not be under contract. The applicant must be over 18, be unpublished (self-published is not considered published for this scholarship), and should not yet have representation by an agent.

Guidelines:

All applications will be accepted via e-mail only between November 1 and January 21, 2017 at louisianamississippi@scbwi.org and must include the following:

In the reference line: DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP

In the body of the e-mail:

1. An autobiographical statement and career summary in less than 250 words.

2. Why your work will bring forward an underrepresented voice in less than 250 words.

3. A synopsis of your manuscript in less than 250 words.

Attached to the e-mail:

4. A PDF, DOC or DOCX in a clear 12-point font, double-spaced, of the first five pages or, if a picture book, the entire text.

The winner will be announced January 31, 2017.

Any submission which does not comply with these guidelines will be disqualified.

Diversity Statement

SCBWI-Louisiana/Mississippi embraces all voices and unites in the common cause of fostering a world where all children can see themselves in the pages of a book. Our region adopts the definition of diversity used by the We Need Diverse Books movement:

We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities*, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.

*We subscribe to a broad definition of disability, which includes but is not limited to physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities, chronic conditions, and mental illnesses (this may also include addiction). Furthermore, we subscribe to a social model of disability, which presents disability as created by barriers in the social environment, due to lack of equal access, stereotyping, and other forms of marginalization.